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White House Unveils Fintech Framework for U.S.

Following the OCC’s plans for a special fintech bank charter, which has state regulators and a few Democratic senators up in arms, the National Economic Council (NEC) of the U.S., part of the Office of White House Policy, has published a whitepaper, “A Framework for Fintech,” reports Paybefore’s sister publication Banking Tech.

“This whitepaper expresses the forward-leaning posture of this Administration to innovation and entrepreneurship, generally, and fintech in particular,” NEC says. The result of discussions held at the White House Fintech Summit in June 2016, where Cabinet Secretaries and senior officials from across the administration “engaged with stakeholders about the potential for fintech to further myriad policy goals, including small business access to capital, financial inclusion and health, domestic growth, and international development.”

The document provides 10 overarching principles for policymakers, regulators, industry participants and other stakeholders to consider:

think broadly about the financial ecosystem;

start with the consumer in mind;

promote safe financial inclusion and financial health;

recognize and overcome potential technological bias;

maximize transparency;

strive for interoperability and harmonize technical standards;

build in cybersecurity, data security, and privacy protections from the start;

increase efficiency and effectiveness in financial infrastructure;

protect financial stability;

continue and strengthen cross-sector engagement.

This whitepaper is a product of ongoing public-private cooperation and a road map for future collaboration, according to the NEC, which also noted that “significant work” remains. “As the fintech ecosystem continues to evolve, this statement of principles should serve as a resource to guide the development of smart, pragmatic, and innovative cross-sector engagement.”

It’s unclear how the incoming presidential administration will approach fintech policy. However, many in the payments and financial services industry expect Donald Trump and the Republican-held Congress to roll back some financial services regulation. Trump has blamed over-regulation for slowing economic growth, while several Republicans in Congress have introduced bills to limit the power of regulators, including the CFPB.

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